Connected on 2008-12-01 09:30:00
from , NY, US
- 8:03 am
- Bugscope Teampumping the 'scope down; back in a minute
- 8:25 am
- 8:34 am
- 8:44 am
- 8:50 am
- 8:58 am
- 9:05 am
- 9:15 am
- Bugscope Teamhello we are just about done with presets
- Bugscope TeamGood morning!
- Bugscope TeamWe are ready to roll.
- Bugscope TeamYou may try driving as soon as you'd like
- Teachergreat, my seventh grade students will be here shortly
- Bugscope Teamthis is the tail end of a caddisfly larva
- Bugscope Teamyou can see one of the claws, and this is also where they have web spinning glands
- Teacheramazing stuff, considering to collect my samples I had to break the ice on the stream
- Bugscope Teamthat is dedication
- Bugscope TeamYou did a great job, and the samples arrived in good shape. I am sorry not to have let you know...
- 9:20 am
- Teacherso when the kids arrive we are free to manipulate the images presented
- Bugscope Teamyou can do it at any time
- Bugscope Teamtry it out -- select a preset, for example, or take the mag down on this area
- Bugscope Teamthis is the tail end of one small caddisfly larva
- Bugscope Teamit curves like a U to the left
- Teacherwhat about the string like structures
- Bugscope Teamif you click to drive you need to remember to click to stop as well
- Bugscope Teamthey seem to have those in all samples, and I think they help them secure themselves to the substrate -- to whatever they attach to
- Teacherwhere's the stop button
- Bugscope Teamoh -- you click on the screen with your mouse to start driving and you click on the screen to stop as well
- Bugscope Teamsame with click to center, but you don'
- Bugscope Teamt need to click to stop
- Bugscope TeamHello Mr Jarrett.
- 9:26 am
- Bugscope TeamMs Faville you can click on any one of the presets to make the microscope drive itself to that place on the stub
- Bugscope TeamYou can have the students log in to ask us questions, and we can let them drive, one at a time, if you wish
- Bugscope Teamonly you have control right now, and you can just keep it if you prefer
- Bugscope Teamthat's what the star next to your name shows
- Teachergreat, I think we will begin the session as a collective group and then possibly divide into groups on alternate computers
- 9:32 am
- Bugscope TeamCate and I will be here to help and to answer questions. I am not sure if Annie, our entomologist, will be able to connect this morning.
- GuestHi everyone, don't mind me, I'm just having fun watching! I'm a K-4 technology teacher in New Jersey. Will be blogging about this site shortly at http://www.ncs-tech.org!
- Bugscope TeamMr Jarrett please let us know when you have questions. Once things get going we will want to make sure we address the students' questions. Every session is a little different.
- Bugscope TeamSometimes they are wild/frenetic, and sometimes they run at a slow, even pace.
- Teachereveryone wanted to see the stonefly mouth first
- Bugscope Teamyou ca
- Bugscope Teamn see the mouth, the antennae, and the eyes
- Bugscope Teamthe eyes are behind the antennae
- Teacherwhy does it look like a crack on its head
Bugscope Teami think that is a strand of fiber hanging over it
- 9:37 am
- Bugscope Teamyou can zoom in on it to make sure tho
- Bugscope Teamnow you can see it a little better
- Bugscope Teama lot of these larva will eat fungi, bacteria, and plant material; others are predators
- Bugscope Teamif you get lost you can take the mag down to see where you are
- Teacherthe student's wondered by the mouth looks so hairy and dry
- Bugscope TeamWe think the hairs (setae) at the mouth opening help filter what the stonefly larva is eating
- Bugscope TeamCate said earlier that it reminded her of whales that filter krill into their mouths.
- 9:43 am
- Guesthow many legs excactly does it have?
- Bugscope TeamNow you can get an idea of how the stage is set up. There are samples all over a 1.75-inch-diameter stub.
- Guestwhy did they name this insect a stone fly
- Bugscope TeamIt looks like most of these have six legs, aas we would think of them, but numerous other leglike appendages.
- Guestijksjllels;ekfl
- Guestis a stone fly hard
- Guestdo stone flies have compound eyes
- Bugscope Teama stone fly has an exoskeleton, so its outer surface is hard, but not more so than most insects
- Teacherwe lost our specimen, any suggestions
- 9:48 am
- Bugscope Teamclick on the preset again
- Bugscope Teamor drive to find a new specimen
- Bugscope Teamright now we are looking at the carbon tape that we put the insects on
- Bugscope Teamlet us know if you have any trouble
- Teacherwhy is it shaped like that?
- Bugscope Teamthis is the blackfly larva, and I am sorry I do not recognize this structure at all -- at first I thought it might be a spiracle
- Teacherwhat is your education
- Bugscope Teamit also looks like a caterpillar proleg, but it seems to be in the middle of the body
- Teacherand how did you get your jog
- Teacherjob
- Bugscope TeamI have a degree in biology and english
- Guestwhere is this inscet located at
- Bugscope Teamand I started doing this because I needed something to do while I was finishing my double major
- Bugscope Teami have a degree in physics, i started working here when i was a student and became full time after i graduated
- Teacheryou both do bugscope full time?
- Bugscope Teamthe insect is in the scanning electron microscope at the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois
- Bugscope Teamno we work in a multi-user facility, bugscope is something we do about 3x a week.
- Bugscope Teamwhen we arent doing bugscope we help users (students from the university) with their projects, help them prepare samples and image them
- Guestwhat do they eat
- Teacheris this the mouthpart?
- 9:53 am
- Bugscope Teamblackfly larvae are filter feeders, but I don't think this is a mouthpart
- Teacherwhat are those strange flame like structures for?
- Bugscope Teambut with this particular sample I am not sure if I could tell the head from the tail
- Bugscope Teamthey resemble crochets, which are tiny hooks that caterpillars have on their prolegs
- Bugscope Teamtoday we are working with samples that we rarely see, and a lot of this is new to us as well
- Guestwhy is it shape like that
- Bugscope Teamthis is the underside of the head, at the other end of the body
- Bugscope Teamthis is the filterfeeding apparatus
- Teacherdo they have eyes?
- Guesthow do they smell
- Bugscope TeamI am not sure if they have eyes on not
- Bugscope Teamwe could try to look for them if you took the mag down
- Teacherok
- Bugscope Teamthey smell, generally, using setae that are specially equipped with chemosensors
- 9:59 am
- Bugscope Teambecause there was only one of these we could not mount it with a ventral and a dorsal view
- Guestwat is a setae
- Guestwhat
- Bugscope Teamsetae are what we call the tiny hairlike structures that insects have so many of
- Bugscope Teamsingular 'seta'
- Guestwhere do you work
- Bugscope Teamhere you can get an idea of the scale -- see the micron bar, in the lower left?
- Teachera student asks...whats that small pill like structure?
Bugscope Teamthe pill-like structures are diatoms, which are small silica-shelled creatures you find in the water
- Guestwhere do find them at
- Bugscope Teamthe hat-shaped one is a diatom too
- Bugscope Teamyes -- they come in lots of different shapes
- Guestwhat are the string like structures
- Teacherare diatoms commonly found in fresh water
- Bugscope Teamcaddisfly larvae can produce silk, like spiders
- 10:04 am
- Guestwhy do they produce slik
- Teacherwhy do make slik
Bugscope Teamthey make cocoon type homes in the water made of rocks and mud. The silk helps hold it together
- Guestsilk
- Bugscope Teamdiatoms are found in both fresh and saltwater
- TeacherWhat about the spiky structures on the caddis?
- Bugscope Teamthe caddisfly larvae that do not make cocoons may also use silk to attach themselves to the stream bed
- Bugscope Teamwhen we see spikey structures they may be sensory, and they may also be protective
- Guestwhat are those things that look like seeds
Bugscope Teami think those are setae
- Teacherwhat are those structures inside the head?
- 10:09 am
- Bugscope TeamHello Korei and Elijah!
- Studenthat does it eat
Bugscope TeamDifferent species of caddisfly eat different things. The predator species typically eat other aquatic insects, and have large jaws called mandibles. Herbivorous species eat algae and other plants.
- Bugscope Teamif you take the mag down you can see where we are with respect to the whole head
- Bugscope Teamnow you can see more clearly where we are on the head
- Studentis tha the mouth
- Studentthe
- Bugscope Teamyes! that is the mouth
- GuestHey everyone sorrry but I have to go...this was awesome! Just blogged it: http://www.ncs-tech.org/?p=2120
- 10:14 am
- Bugscope TeamThank you Mr Jarrett.
- Bugscope Teamok mr jarrett. thank you for joining
- Studentbye
- Studentmr jarret
- Studentwhat is that black stuff around the quill
- Bugscope Teamthis is the tail of a caddisfly larva next to the part of the porcupine quill that sticks into the porcupine
- Teacherwhat are those things that look like legs?
- Bugscope Teamthe black stuff reminds me of the stuff you see around thge base of a hair that's been plucked out
- Bugscope TeamI imagine those are also sort of like prolegs on a caterpillar
- Studentwhat is a thge
- Teacheris the their function?
- Bugscope Teamdo you want to drive over and see? you could do it
- 10:20 am
- Bugscope Teamit may be that they serve to help anchor the caddisfly larva in the stream, especially when they have silk stuck to them
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the tiny hooks
- Teacheris this the variety that constructs a house?
- Bugscope Teamyes it is ms. faville
- Bugscope Teamso it is likely that those frond-like limbs help the larva attach itself to the house it builds around itself
- Bugscope Teamthe hydra is -- there!
- Bugscope Teamit looks like a vase
- Bugscope Teamit is attached at its base, which is to the right
- Studentare the hydra parasites
Bugscope TeamHydra are named after the nine-headed sea snake of Greek mythology and are freshwater relatives of corals, sea anemones and jellyfish.
- 10:25 am
- Bugscope Teamthey feed on smaller protozoans that are in the water
- Bugscope Teamnow you can see where we were -- you can get an idea of the scale of what we were seeing
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the limbs of the stonefly larva
- Teacheris it common to find hydras attached to aquatic macroinverts
- Bugscope Teamthe 21 um scale tells us that we are presently looking at an area about 100 microns wide, or 0.1 mm.
- Studentwhy do the they look like balloons
- Bugscope Teamwe have never seen them before, and we are not sure they are hydra, which normally have limbs like little trees
- Bugscope Teamthis is cool
- Teacherdid we discover a new species possibly?
- Bugscope Teamyes!
- 10:30 am
- Bugscope TeamI have not been able to find it on the web, yet
- TeacherJamesus academus
- Bugscope Teamthey're like little pitcher plants, but we did see one in which the open end of the vase had something sticking out of it.
- TeacherDo you have the capacity to dissect?
- Bugscope Teamyeah good name -- genus and species
- Teacherdo they have teeth?
Bugscope Teamno they have a couple set of jaws, you can see the bigger ones and further in the mouth is a smaller pair
- Bugscope Teamwe can dissect things on a sort of gross scale
- Bugscope Teamwhoops its just one set
- Bugscope Teamthe pair inside the mouth is a set of palps
- Bugscope Teamwe can also embed whole tiny things in plastic and then section them
- Teacherwhat is attached to the top of the specimen
- Bugscope Teamyou can go and look; it appears to be debris from the water
- Bugscope Teampretty
- 10:36 am
- Bugscope Teamthese seem to be modified setae -- frond-like setae
- Studentwhat are the setae
- Studentfor
- Bugscope Teamsetae help insects sense what is touching them
- Bugscope Teamthey are likely sensitive to water flow
- Bugscope Teamnot sure what these specific setae do. Some do have special functions like tasting/smelling or feeling air movements
- Bugscope TeamCate is right -- we don't always know just what specific setae do.
- TeacherIt amazes me how complex these inverts actually are
- Bugscope Teamyou did a great job collecting and packing them so we could get them in such good shape
- Bugscope Teamscot was very excited when we received them last week
- Bugscope Teamwe are sorry to have so few good answers to your questions --- we see these so infrequently
- Bugscope Teamyes very excited
- Teacherthank you so much for your efforts, we truly enjoyed the session!
- Studenti have to go
- Studentbye scot
- Bugscope TeamThank you, Ms. Faville. See you tomorrow!
- Bugscope TeamThanks Korei and Elijah!
- 10:41 am
- Bugscope Teamthank you for your great questions
- Teachergood bye!
- Bugscope TeamBye!
- Bugscope Teamthat was an interesting session :)
- Bugscope Teamyou can access your saved images and chat from today at your page: http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/members/2008-108/
